Following military service, he returned to Oklahoma State and completed a master's degree in architecture in 1958.
[3] Following the completion of his master's, Lacy worked with Bill Caudill's architectural firm in Houston, Texas.
[5] In 1985, the NLRB overturned Lacy's decision and ordered that the CUFCT be recognized by Cooper Union, finding that the faculty lacked "substantial input into nonacademic matters...decisions on the hiring, promotion, tenure, and retention of teaching staff are frequently made in the absence of faculty recommendations, and when they are made following faculty recommendations, those recommendations are frequently rejected.
"[6] Following his time at Cooper Union (1980-1987), Lacy served as the Executive Director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize from 1988 through 2005,[7] and as president of the State University of New York at Purchase from 1993 to 2001.
In 2003, Lacy moved to San Antonio as a consulting architect for the McNay Art Museum.